This year each NYC students participated in a mandated ELA and Math task. The tasks were grade specific and were structured to reflect the curriculum and showcase the skills of our students. The voice thread I created relates to the second grade performance task in ELA. As my colleagues and I began to unravel the massive task our second graders had to complete, we realized that students were to watch, take notes and respond to several videos on an Arctic animal. We made a decision to have our students work on Polar Bears since we had the resources to support that topic on a whole group level. Everything was going smoothly until we had to choose a video. We could not find one that was age appropriate or that did not depict polar bears as ferocious killers. This voice thread that I created on polar bears could have easily been used to help with this problem. I think that a voice thread is an incredible tool for teachers and students. I feel that teachers can use voice thread to create a custom video on any topic that contains only the material they wish to teach. It is most times very hard to find a clip that is specific to your lesson. I can also see voice thread as an amazing tool for students to create non fiction reports, fictional stories and live journal entries. This would be especially good for students with OT issues that prevent them from writing clearly for all to read. In fact, I recently helped one of my students create a voice thread for the first chapter of his realistic fictions piece. Our usual process is that he writes, and then I scribe. This was a new and rewarding experience for us both! He chose pictures to support his chapter and then spoke the words that were on his mind, clear as day. It was his best "writing" piece so far this year!
Polar Bear Voice Thread
Table of Contents
Reflection
This year each NYC students participated in a mandated ELA and Math task. The tasks were grade specific and were structured to reflect the curriculum and showcase the skills of our students. The voice thread I created relates to the second grade performance task in ELA.As my colleagues and I began to unravel the massive task our second graders had to complete, we realized that students were to watch, take notes and respond to several videos on an Arctic animal. We made a decision to have our students work on Polar Bears since we had the resources to support that topic on a whole group level. Everything was going smoothly until we had to choose a video. We could not find one that was age appropriate or that did not depict polar bears as ferocious killers. This voice thread that I created on polar bears could have easily been used to help with this problem.
I think that a voice thread is an incredible tool for teachers and students. I feel that teachers can use voice thread to create a custom video on any topic that contains only the material they wish to teach. It is most times very hard to find a clip that is specific to your lesson.
I can also see voice thread as an amazing tool for students to create non fiction reports, fictional stories and live journal entries. This would be especially good for students with OT issues that prevent them from writing clearly for all to read.
In fact, I recently helped one of my students create a voice thread for the first chapter of his realistic fictions piece. Our usual process is that he writes, and then I scribe. This was a new and rewarding experience for us both! He chose pictures to support his chapter and then spoke the words that were on his mind, clear as day. It was his best "writing" piece so far this year!